I love maps. I thought teaching this part of geography would be easy. I was WRONG!
After a day of trying to teach it with the book, a map and a globe, I was still seeing that “deer-in-the-headlight” look from my students. I came in the next day and was getting the same thing. Desperate, I took a tangerine (fresh fruit isn’t just good to eat) and drew some “countries” on it. Then I carefully peeled it and showed the kids what happens to the countries when we smush the round to flat. A few light bulbs went off, but not enough. I grabbed my masking tape and said,
Close your books. We’re going into the hallway.
Out we went. Thank goodness our walls have tiles on them. I divided the class into teams and taped off two equal sections of wall for them.
These are maps of your worlds. You will create hemispheres, continents, countries, landforms, and oceans. You must create a compass rose for each map. Everything must have a name or be labeled. You must label the latitudes and longitudes. Every person must have a job and there will be no fussing. Go.
I can’t begin to tell you how excited they are! Once they are done, we are going to have a “war.” I know, I know, it’s violent. They will launch bombs onto the other’s maps. (The boys can’t wait for this. Neither can the girls, now that I think about it.) Of course, they will have to use latitude and longitude coordinates to do it. If they “destroy” a country/continent, the one team has to give it up and the other team can put it on their map.
They WILL come away with this understanding latitude and longitude. I know it.
This is so incredibly cool. Taking over the hallways to do stuff like this is great.
A really terrific and durable material kids can use for mapping projects in the hallways are large trimmings (ends of rolls) of blue vinyl material from swimming pool liner projects. I have a good connection who could probably get you some if you’re interested in future years–husband of someone you already know who is an executive of a pool construction company.
Also, you know about Dava Sobel’s book, right?
If not, check out this New York Times book review, which gives the flavor of the book. The story of the guy who persevered and found a way to solve the problem of measuring the longitude of one’s location is a great one to share with your students.
http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/03/09/bsp/longitude.html